AUG 02, 2014

Maurice Iwu, the controversial former chairman of
the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), has capitalized on the outbreak of deadly
and incurable Ebola in West Africa to restate his
scientifically unproven and dubious claim that he
had found a cure for the virus in a drug
synthesized from kola nut.
More than 600 people have died in several West
African countries in what is seen as the most
serious outbreak of the Ebola virus. The former
INEC chair, a pharmacist by training and a former
professor at the University of Nigeria, appears
determined to exploit the growing alarm over the
virus to renew unfounded claims that he had
achieved a breakthrough in the treatment of Ebola.
But Mr. Iwu has a long history of fraudulent
claims.
In 2007, SaharaReporters had written a series of
investigative reports exposing gaps in Mr. Iwu's
academic and professional background. Our
extensive investigative reports ran weeks before
the then INEC chief oversaw the 2007 general
elections that local and foreign observers
described as one of the most fraudulent elections
in any part of the world. Among other revelations,
our investigative team discovered that Mr. Iwu had
forged his bachelor’s degree from Cameroon and
fraudulently used the certificate to obtain
admission to Bradford University in the UK where
he undertook graduate studies.
Following our expose, Mr. Iwu lied to a Nigerian
online blogger that he had also received his
bachelor’s degree from Bradford University, a
claim the institution denied. In an email dated
Monday, January 22, 2007, Oliver Tipper, who was
then Senior Press Officer for Marketing and
Communications at the University of Bradford,
stated: “Iwu did not do an undergraduate degree at
Bradford. He was enrolled here in 1975 for the
Masters degree in Pharmacy, but we have on our
records that he studied Pharmacy in Cameroon
during the late 1960s before coming to Bradford.”
Since those revelations, Mr. Iwu has never
addressed the inconsistencies and discrepancies in
his academic profile. A source close to then
President Olusegun Obasanjo told SaharaReporters
that Mr. Obasanjo was fully aware of Mr. Iwu's
fraudulent background. “Andy Uba recommended
Professor Iwu to chair INEC, and President
Obasanjo decided to choose him because of his
questionable background. Chief Obasanjo knew it
would be easy to blackmail Iwu to rig elections for
candidates handpicked by Obasanjo and his
cronies,” said the source.
Those declared winners in the fraudulent 2007
elections included the sickly and now deceased
former President Umaru Yar’Adua, and Mr. Andy
Uba. The latter was rigged into office as the
Governor of Anambra State, but was in office for a
mere 17 days before the Supreme Court kicked
him out in a ruling that drew nation-wide
celebration. SaharaReporters had also written a
series of investigative reports that exposed Mr.
Uba’s fraudulent certificate claims. We revealed
that Mr. Uba’s claims that he earned degrees from
Concordia University in Canada, California State
University in the US, and a so-called “Buxton
University” in the UK were mere concoctions.
On his part, Mr. Iwu has a history of deception,
misrepresentation and dishonesty with regard to
claiming pharmaceutical breakthroughs similar to
the latest one about Crofelemer drug invention. At
the 16th International Botanical Conference in
1999, Mr. Iwu made the startling announcement
that he had found the cure for the dreaded Ebola
virus. He claimed that the cure resulted from
groundbreaking research carried out under the
auspices of his non-profit outfit, BDCP. He told
participants that Garcinia kola extract stopped the
replication of the Ebola virus. Mr. Iwu followed his
proclamation with a call for more funds. “Our
limiting factor is funds,” he declared. “If we have a
sponsor, we can do it in no time.”
The battle cry got Mr. Iwu a lot of attention. Soon,
he received millions of dollars to fund the
development of his ostensible cure. BDCP’s
financial earnings outlined in Form 990 and
obtained by SaharaReporters in 2007 show that
Mr. Iwu received grants and donations in the
amount of $425,947 in 1999, $367,870 in 2001, $
640,917 in 2002 and $980,771 in 2003—a total of
more than $2.4 million.
Mr. Iwu reported in the form that all the monies
were spent for the purpose of “medical research on
the use of African herb for medicine.” However, till
date there appears no mention of further
development of Garcinia kola extract to cure Ebola
or any significant discoveries beyond some
patents, one of which was an “ Alkaloids of
Picralima Nitida used for treatment of Protozoal
diseases ” invented by Maurice Iwu et al., and
assigned to the U.S. Secretary of the Army,
Washington, D.C. The patent, designated
5,290,553, was issued March 1, 1994, before Mr.
Iwu’s claims on Ebola research.
Interestingly, no U.S. or European pharmaceutical
companies has shown any interest in following Mr.
Iwu’s much-touted leads.
In the Form 990 tax documents submitted to the
United States Government, Mr. Iwu and his
partners deliberately failed to list names of their
Board of Trustees. But in the Article of Amendment
of Bioresources Development and Conservation
Program—completed in November 1994—the body
listed five members of the Board of Directors:
Professor Maurice Iwu, Dr. Lisa Messerole, Cosmas
N. Obialor, Thomas F. Tata, and Dr. Chris Okunji.
Mr. Iwu's questionable lifestyle did not start in
1999. In another 2007 investigative report by
SaharaReporters, our reporters unearthed how Mr.
Iwu contrived to steal thousands of dollars from
Citibank in the US.
According to official documents obtained by
SaharaReporters from the Circuit Court of
Montgomery, on August 10, 1992, Mr. Iwu’s son
deposited a bank check drawn on the United
States Treasury Department in the amount of $
5,000 payable into his father’s Citibank checking
account (Acct. number XXXX2549). Instead of
crediting Mr. Iwu’s checking account with a $
5,000 deposit, Citibank erroneously credited his
account with a $50,000 deposit on August 11,
1992, an excess of $45,000. Mr. Iwu, who noticed
the error on August 17, 1992, acted immediately to
transfer the sum of $20,000 into his savings
account on the same day. Three days later, on
August 21, 1992, he transferred the remaining $
25,000 out of the checking account into the same
savings account. On the same day of August 21,
1992, Mr. Iwu withdrew $35,000 from his savings
account and converted it into a cashier’s check
that was then transferred to London through Chevy
Chase Bank in Maryland to National Westminster
Bank in London. The $35,000 was then transferred
to Bioresources Development and Conservation
Program (BDCP) in Nigeria “to pay for expense
connected with the International Congress being
hosted by BDCP.”
According to BDCP financial statement prepared for
the event and signed by Dr. Chris Okunji, the
conference treasurer, the transferred amount of $
35,000 was recorded in the document as
“donations from overseas through Prof. Iwu”.
Prior to traveling to Enugu for the conference, Mr.
Iwu was approached by the bank to repay the
excess amount credited to his account. He told the
bank that he had completely spent the money
because he thought that the money came from one
of the grants he had applied for. This was before
Mr. Iwu testified in court that he brought the
overage to Citibank’s attention immediately he
noticed it.
Before Mr. Iwu was dragged to court, he and
Citibank had reached an agreement on a
repayment plan both verbally and in writing. In a
letter dated December 23, 1992 and addressed to
Mr. Iwu, Mr. Ruppert, a vice president of Citibank,
acknowledged Iwu’s initial payment of $5,000 and
outlined the agreed repayment plan. The plan
required Mr. Iwu to repay $10,000 in January,
1993 and the balance of $30,000 in March 1993.
But Mr. Iwu stopped repaying and left for Enugu to
facilitate his BDCP conference.
Upon returning from Enugu, Mr. Iwu was informed
by Citibank of the lapses in payments. A letter by
Mr. Ruppert dated March 18, 1993 stated in part:
“on February 3, 1993 you called and left a voice
mail message indicating that you had just arrived
home from an overseas trip and you would not be
able to make the $10,000 payment until the end of
February 1993. To date we have not received this
payment.” Mr. Ruppert continued: “your
unwillingness to commit to a satisfactory
repayment schedule implies to us that you do not
intend to repay your debt.”
A defiant Iwu reacted by refusing to repay as
agreed. On March 29, 1993, he wrote to Mr.
Ruppert that “I was never indebted to you and that
this whole transaction arose because Citibank
messed up my project account which I operated at
the bank.” In the same letter, Mr. Iwu stated, “I
have been away to Europe and Africa since
December 18, 1992 on previously scheduled travel
in connection with my work. I returned to the USA
briefly in the first week of February and promptly
informed you of my inability to make any
payments to you by the end of February and that I
was traveling. I discussed with you during the
meeting, I will pay $5,000 on or about November
15, and make subsequent payments in February,
May, September and December 1993. If, however, I
receive a reimbursement from UNIDO (based on
the request I have submitted) then I will pay the
entire amount in full by March 1993.”
Mr. Iwu made additional payments that totaled up
to $17,000 before being dragged to court by
Citibank seeking reimbursement of the remaining $
28,000.
Following nearly two years of litigation, both
parties reached a settlement agreement and mutual
release on February 22, 1995 that mandated Mr.
Iwu to repay the said amount. The details of the
agreement stipulated that Mr. Iwu would make a
first repayment to Citibank in the amount $4,000
no later than March 10, 1995, and then a second
repayment of $4,000 on April 15, 1995. The
remaining $20,000 owed was to be repaid through
monthly automatic debits of $750 into a new
checking account that the court ordered Mr. Iwu to
open no later than March 10, 1995. The debits
were said to begin March 10, 1995 to be fully
repaid in May 1997.
SaharaReporters could not ascertain whether the
amount was eventually repaid. Our correspondent
placed calls to Mr. Iwu's son, Samuel Iwu, but he
never responded.
In a separate development, SaharaReporters
discovered from official documents obtained from
the District Court of Maryland for Montgomery
County that on October 19, 1998, Mr. Iwu and Mr.
Okunji, serving as president and treasurer
respectively to the BDCP, received a $25,000 loan
on behalf of Bioresources Development and
Conservation Program Inc. from Riggs National
Bank. Mr. Iwu, who acted as the personal
guarantor for BDCP, failed to repay the loan within
the stipulated time, again leading the bank to file a
lawsuit.
Interestingly, on December 4, 2006, Mr. Iwu’s son,
Samuel, presented a cashier’s check drawn on
Chevy Chase Bank in Bethesda, Maryland in the
amount $25,619.08 for repayment of the loan. It is
curious that the loan was suddenly repaid after Mr.
Iwu assumed office as chairman of INEC, raising
questions about the source of the funds.
Following the scandal of his term as INEC
chairman, Mr. Iwu has sought every opportunity to
shore up his battered image. One of his strategies
appears to be to inflate or fabricate his role in
developing new drugs for diseases, especially one
as deadly and alarming as Ebola virus.
He has also tried to portray himself as a devout
Christian. At the end of his tenure at the
commission, Mr. Iwu had become so rich that he
singlehandedly built and donated Saint Michael’s
Catholic Church in Umakabia in Ehime Mbano Local
Government Area of Imo State. The huge cost of
the cathedral provoked condemnation of church
officials who enthusiastically accepted the “gift”
without asking how Mr. Iwu made the money.
A professor of pharmacy told SaharaReporters that
Mr. Iwu’s attempt to claim that he knows of a cure
for Ebola was “a highly unusual practice.” He
added: “Professor Iwu ought to know that before
announcing that a drug can cure a disease, the
drug should have gone through series of tests and
lab trials, in this case, Prof. Iwu’s claims has not
been through any test since he made a public
claim about his so-called discovery in the 90s.”
http://saharareporters.com/2014/08/02/ebola-virus-spreads-alarm-former-inec-chairman-maurice-iwu-dusts-fraudulent-claims-about

Abeg make una read am tell me I cant read all is too long

The media arm of supporter of APC at it again. For the records, Maurice Iwu has made no such claims during this episode if Ebola outbreak. All responsible media houses that have published that article noted that it was lifted from a BBC article published in 1999.

Summary please...

What a long story to pull one man down. Eff sahara desert.

chai someone slap me.
see me telling some bunch of peopletoday that this muda... found a cure for ebola
even called his previous position
stewpid

Ibo and wuruwuru sha.

Na wa!

;DIbo and wuruwuru sha.

Mtcheeew!efi ofe nma!!

Maurice Iwu has not granted any media interview in recent years not to talk of claiming cure for "ebola". Some mischievous teenagers started spreading that old story some days ago and Sahara reporters are now using it to blackmail Iwu.

I doff my hat for SR, the Wikileaks of Nigeria.

Abagworo: Maurice Iwu has not granted any media interview in recent years not to talk of claiming cure for "ebola". Some mischievous teenagers started spreading that old story some days ago and Sahara reporters are now using it to blackmail Iwu.

But Iwu did make that claim once, right?

Abagworo: Maurice Iwu has not granted any media interview in recent years not to talk of claiming cure for "ebola". Some mischievous teenagers started spreading that old story some days ago and Sahara reporters are now using it to blackmail Iwu.

I think we should give kudos to saharareporters this time around, Iwu made such claims years back but because the disease was slow at the time nobody actually keyed in to it, so Iwu should come and and tell the whole world what has happened to his ebola drugs

orisameji: Ibo and wuruwuru sha.

Na wa!

what has igbo got to do with an individual? Mr. take it easy abeg.

studio14: I think we should give kudos to saharareporters this time around, Iwu made such claims years back but because the disease was slow at the time nobody actually keyed in to it, so Iwu should come and and tell the whole world what has happened to his ebola drugs

Sahara reporter is so wrong. How can you talk about false claim on Ebola virus and spend 95% of the article talking about politics, elections, and bank fraud.
Get a life or shut up!

Abagworo: Maurice Iwu has not granted any media interview in recent years not to talk of claiming cure for "ebola". Some mischievous teenagers started spreading that old story some days ago and Sahara reporters are now using it to blackmail Iwu.

but he did make d claim to it before. Now that the virus is generic and taking another disastrous turn, let him come and defend his previous assertion.

Sahara liars. Once it's an igbo man, Sahara liars must surely try to pull him down.

naijaking1:

Sahara reporter is so wrong. How can you talk about false claim on Ebola virus and spend 95% of the article talking about politics, elections, and bank fraud.
Get a life or shut up!

I too also saw this as a personal vendetta on the person of Iwu. The fallacy in the article is so glaring. by the way, let Iwu defend himself.

That was a research made and reported almost 20years ago and neither Sahara reporters nor I Abagworo knows the outcome of further tests carried out on it. It might have been proven wrong or may still be in contention till date.

The entire article is pointless and a total waste of the Author time and efforts . . . .

But this whole garbage I read centered on politics& his academical qualifications, not on the veracity of his claim.

And I noticed one thing, his gotten one patent for inventing one drug, so there might be some truth in his claim

---

SR has been quiet for sometime now, suddenly they have found they voice

Yoruba pull him down syndrome since 1200. I dey laff oh!

Empty vessel make the loudest noise, people are working am chair critics are typing.##


Who is productive and who is the monkey that wants to eat whilst the baboon work?


Yoruba, i hail oh.

waternogetenemy: Yoruba pull him down syndrome since 1200. I dey laff oh!

Empty vessel make the loudest noise, people are working am chair critics are typing.##


Who is productive and who is the monkey that wants to eat whilst the baboon work?


Yoruba, i hail oh.

Your brain needs urgent examination, where did you see Yoruba there?

Omimah:
Your brain needs urgent examination, where did you see Yoruba there?

Don't mind those fools.

I thought the thread was supposed to be about prof Iwu's claim to have found a cure for ebola? Why spend so much time giving us his acclaimed criminal history courtesy of sahara reporters, instead of sticking to the heading of the thread. @OP

well done sahara....

....typical....na their way...


emegwali comes to mind...


thief...

JEITO: I thought the thread was supposed to be about prof Iwu's claim to have found a cure for ebola? Why spend so much time giving us his acclaimed criminal history courtesy of sahara reporters, instead of sticking to the heading of the thread. @OP

pls go through the thread's title again.